Various types of slide puzzles in which plural puzzle pieces are arranged horizontally and vertically and the puzzle pieces freely move horizontally and vertically using a space obtained by removing one of the puzzle pieces to complete a predetermined pattern have been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-000236 discloses a slide puzzle in which codes indicating content information are read from a pattern that appears after completion of the puzzle using a mobile phone with a camera to enable provision of the content information.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-154793 discloses a jigsaw puzzle input device of a touch panel screen capable of providing an enjoyable and a creative jigsaw puzzle with a simple operation and enhancing communication with other persons. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-109915 discloses a service in which an image is divided into plural images to be distributed to plural mobile image display terminals and the images are exchanged between the terminals to create a composite image.
On the other hand, as electronic devices such as a smart-phone or a tablet terminal have become widespread, games for the electronic devices in addition to games for home video game machines have been actively developed. A structure called a “GACHA (vending machine toy)” has become widespread as a structure that gives a character which is usable in a predetermined game to a user. When the user uses the “GACHA,” the character is given to the user as a result of a random event that depends only on chance.
The “content information” disclosed in JP '236 is no more than a uniform resource locator (URL) of a web page that provides predetermined content to a user and, thus, the slide puzzle disclosed in JP '236 cannot provide a character which is usable in other services such as a game. Thus, in such a slide puzzle, it is difficult to maintain high motivation of the user to solve the puzzle. This is similarly applied to the related art techniques disclosed in JP '793 and JP '915.
On the other hand, since the “GACHA” is no more than a structure in which a character is given to a user as a result of a random event that depends only on chance, the user does not easily get a feeling of accomplishment of retrieving the character. Accordingly, the user does not easily have affection for the character and, consequently, does not easily feel enthusiasm for a game in which the character is usable.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a recording medium storing a game program and the like capable of providing a slide puzzle capable of maintaining high motivation of a user with excellent amusement.